2025 Conference

The University of Kent is working to embed all 17 of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals into their operations, teaching, research and beyond.

Green Gown Award Winners 2024

The Univesity of Kent won the “Benefitting Society” Award at the 2024 Green Gown Awards in recognition of their work as the world’s first Right to Food University.  

 This award recognises the powerful and innovative ways that education institutions are realising their purpose in society to benefit the lives of individuals, communities and wider society.

Singling out Kent in this category, the judges said that the Right to Food is: ‘A very well thought out and planned programme, addressing a critical societal issue at present'.

BAM and Sustainability

BAM aligns its efforts to be more environmentally sustainable by:

• Replacing plastic badge holders with environmentally friendly and biodegradable badges
• Using lanyards and notebooks made from recycled material
• Sustainable menu throughout the Conference
• No goodie bags, optional sustainable gifts
• No paper brochures

Professor Jan Bebbington, former Vice Chair for Sustainability, has prepared this brief note to help our community think and talk about sustainability in the context of academic conferences.

The desire to be less unsustainable is prompted by the concern that combined human activities are creating environmental problems that are systemic in nature and that these problems will threaten human wellbeing. At the same time, sustainability concerns also relate to social equity with an ethically-based desire to ensure that all people have the chance to have their needs met. These concerns infuse conference organisation and also the choices made by academics over which conferences to attend.

The following material lays out some of the issues at stake in terms of environmental sustainability at conferences and it should become apparent that it is impossible to easily be categorical about what ‘best’ practice is. Rather this short guide provides ‘points to ponder’ in thinking about conference attendance and organisation.

Attending a conference creates impacts from two sets of activities, namely: getting to the conference and impacts that arise during the conference itself.

Continue reading: Sustainability at Conferences

All attendees from outside the UK are responsible for making sure they have the correct documentation to enter the country. Please refer the UK Border Agency (UKBA)’s guide.

EEA and Switzerland

Most participants whose nationality is of a European Economic Area country or Switzerland will only require a standard passport.

Other nationalities

If you are of any other nationality, the first step is to establish whether you need a visa for travel. Start with the UKBA’s page. This will direct you to further guidance, which you should read very closely. Note that if your sole purpose in coming to the UK is to attend the Conference, it is very likely you will be considered a ‘Business Visitor’.

If you do not require a visa, it is possible that you will instead need other documentation: you are advised to check this before proceeding.

In case of any uncertainty, please consult the UKBA directly via the contact details given on its website, or the British Embassy in your country.

Applying for a visa

Please note that the British Academy of Management is not authorised to provide official advice on visa issues.

Confirmation of involvement in the conference and other documentation

If you need an official letter of invitation to support an entry visa application or funding bid, please complete a quick survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/7MBT8J/

To ensure that you get the document(s) you need as quickly as possible, please make sure that you state the following:

1. The reason(s) why you need the documentation (immigration visa, bid for travel funds from your institution, etc)
2. Your full name, in the exact format that will be needed for the documentation you are seeking
3. Your current contact details
4. Passport number
5. Date of birth
6. Nationality
7. The title of your paper.

At BAM, we are dedicated to promoting wellbeing and positive mental health in business and management academics and doctoral researchers. Ensuring that you can have an enjoyable experience at the BAM2025 Conference is one of our key goals, and we, along with the University of Kent, have arranged a number of activities for you to make some time for you.

The BAM Wellbeing Tree

Come and see our interactive installation promoting and exploring mental health and wellbeing in Higher Education.

As one of our strategic priorities, we at BAM are keen to encourage individuals, managers, institutional leaders and policy makers to pay better attention to mental health and wellbeing in Business & Management academia, and to provide guidance on how mental wellness might be facilitated. 

As part of this aim, we invite you to share your ideas and experiences of how this might be achieved and what key stakeholders can do to address wellbeing challenges in our sector.

The BAM Wellbeing Tree is an interactive installation that enables everyone to share their views.

• Share your experiences of effective steps that you, your manager or your institution have taken to improve wellbeing and mental health.
• Suggest initiatives you, your manager, institutions or policy makers might take to promote mental wellness at work.
• Tell us what we at BAM could be doing to encourage leaders and policy makers to move the dial on mental wellbeing.
• What will you personally do differently to improve yours and others’ wellbeing?
• Read what other people say by browsing the apples hung on the tree.

Members of the BAM Executive will be at the tree during lunchtime breaks so you can also talk to us directly! 

Tai Chi - more information to follow.

Conference in-person registration information:

Delegate Badges

Delegates will be given their badges at the registration desks and badges must be worn at all times during the Conference. Please note: failure to wear the badge may result in you not being permitted into the session rooms. 

In order to help you recognise who other delegates are at the Conference, badge lanyards are colour coded:

IMPORTANT: You must bring your delegate badge to the Gala Reception at Cloisters, Canterbury Cathedral as it is your entry ticket and must be shown to a member of BAM staff so they can check you in.*** 

Cloakroom/Luggage Room Room:

• Tuesday 2nd September: Seminar Room 1, TBC
• Wednesday 3rd September - Friday 5th September: Kent Indoor Tennis and Events Arena (KITEA)

Cloakroom/Luggage Room Opening Hours 

We are pleased to announce that we will now be hosting a Gala Networking Reception at the historic and magnificent Canterbury Cathedral. In response to your feedback, we have revised the format of the Gala Dinner to ensure that it provides an affordable and enjoyable networking experience.

The revised format is designed to facilitate easier interaction, creating opportunities for meaningful connections and fostering productive conversations. This change will allow for a more inclusive evening held in the awe-inspiring surroundings of a unique British landmark.

Tickets can be purchased with your Conference ticket for an additional £49.

All in-person sessions for the BAM2025 Conference will take place at the Univrsity of Kent. Please refer to the App and Conference website for the Campus map.

Paper sessions and Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) will take place across various rooms within the Newton Building. Please refer to the Conference programme for further details.

Cloakroom/Luggage Room Room - LT1, Level 1, Newton Building, Nottingham Trent University

Cloakroom/Luggage Room Opening Hours 

Special Mobility Access

Special access arrangements are available at the University of Kent for delegates with special needs, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive and motor impairments. There are disabled toilet facilities, lifts and on-site accessibility induction loops available at the venue.

If you require special mobility access, please also contact [email protected] to discuss your needs so we can make any necessary prior arrangements. 

Please check the programme to re-confirm the day, time and room of the session(s) you have been allocated. While we do not anticipate any changes, we cannot not guarantee that this will be the case, so please check the programme at least at the start of the conference and on the morning of the day of your session.

Full Papers / Symposiums / Workshops

Rooms allocated for Full Papers, Symposiums and Workshops Presentations will have a laptop, data projector and screen available.

Please note: delegates will need to bring their presentation on a USB data stick and arrive early to upload their presentation onto the laptop. This is to ensure presentations are uploaded successfully and to allow enough time for any technical difficulties that may arise. Delegates may also bring any materials they wish to distribute to other delegates during their presentation. 

Please see below the session timings allocated for every delegate’s presentation. 

Developmental papers will have 20 - 30 minutes allocated and will be presented in 'round table' format. 

The layout is normally ‘round table’ rather than theatre-style, to facilitate group discussion.

It is recommended that session chairs and participants/discussants, especially for developmental paper sessions, read papers in advance to get the most out of the session. Presenters are asked to bring copies of their papers or suitable handouts to distribute at the start (copies in PowerPoint are welcome)..

Technical Information

Standard Equipment in all of the venues

Computers, data projectors and speakers are included in all classrooms and theatres.

All classroom and theatres now have a wall mounted room camera, a monitor mounted presenter camera and microphones within the room. Camera and microphone solutions differ greatly depending on the size of the teaching space. For this reason, a laminated card is positioned on the AV furniture detailing which devices should be chosen for “room” camera, “presenter” camera and microphone for dual delivery in each space.

Using your own laptop or Mac to connect to our projectors

All of the venues have VGA and HDMI connections.

If your device does not have a VGA or HDMI connection, then please ensure that you bring the relevant adapter with you to facilitate its use.

You will need to connect to the Wi-Fi if you need access to the internet. Wi-Fi Connectivity is excellent in most areas of the University of Kent. Please drop a line to the BAM if you require Wi-Fi access for your presentation: [email protected] or speak to one of the IT stewards onsite.

Computers supplied in all Venues

All computers have a Windows 10 operating system along with Microsoft Office 2016. All computers have wired data connections.

Font

Please ensure the font you use is compatible with PowerPoint 2016

Embedded Videos

If you have embedded videos within your presentation we recommend you check these as soon as possible at the venue. We recommend that embedded videos are mp4.

One of the most common reasons for videos refusing to play is because the video has not been copied over correctly from your own machine to your storage device. We suggest you save the slideshow as .pptx file as this embeds the video file permanently into the PowerPoint file. Saving the PowerPoint as a .pptx file will create a large file but only the size of all the embedded videos combined.

When copying your presentation to a memory stick it is imperative that you copy over the video file along with the PowerPoint presentation.

The most straight forward way to do this is to create a file on your memory stick that contains the main PowerPoint presentation and your videos. This file can then be copied over to the desktop on our PC’s.

NOTE: If your memory stick or storage device is encoded please ensure that it does not require the downloading of any encryption software to our machine in order to access the files stored on it. This cannot be facilitated at short notice due to the security measures installed on our computers.

Printing Facilities

If you require printing services for Papers or Posters, NTU’s print shop is located a 1-minute walk from the Newton Building. 

Whilst on site, guests should familiarise themselves with the fire safety advise for visitors. 

The University of Kent operates a non-smoking policy in all buildings; however, smoking in designated areas and in the open, away from buildings, is permitted.

We hope you enjoy a healthy conference, however, if you start to feel unwell then we ask you to please stay in your bedroom and let us know by completing this form or calling your reception during opening hours and a member of the relevant team will be able to further assist you.

University Medical Centre

If you have a minor medical complaint, please contact the Medical Centre on campus: 01227 469333.  They are open Mon-Fri 8am-6:30pm. 

The nearest pharmacy

Address

GILES LANE

CANTERBURY

KENT

CT2 7PB

Opening times

Day                      Times

Monday              9am to 6pm

Tuesday              9am to 6pm

Wednesday        9am to 6pm

Thursday            9am to 6pm

Friday                 9am to 6pm

Saturday             Closed

If you require medical advice while the centre is closed please ring the Out of Hours Service on 111. Should you need it, there is a app called Waitless, which shows local accident and emergency and minor injury facilities in the area and shows the travel time and wait time at each one.

In the case of a medical emergency, please ring 999, it is recommended to use what3words if you are not familiar with campus and contact the Campus security team on the Emergency phone number +44 (0) 1227 823333 so they can assist and guide the emergency services onto campus;

The number to contact Campus Security at any other time is +44 (0) 1227 823300

Please report any accidents or near-miss incidents that occur on site to the nearest reception, or conference registration desk immediately.

Please check the programme to re-confirm the day, time and room of the session(s) you have been allocated. While we do not anticipate any changes, we cannot not guarantee that this will be the case, so please check the programme at least at the start of the conference and on the morning of the day of your session.

Please see below the session timings allocated for every delegate’s presentation. 

4a. Virtual Full Paper Sessions

The standard session will include three papers, with 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion.  As an author, please ensure you join the session 15 minutes before your session starts, introduce yourself to the session chair and check you do not encounter any technical issues and please check you can share your screen to present your PPT slides. When the session begins, the session chair will introduce you to the audience.

The session chair will moderate the Q&A box and chat function and will address any questions/comments after your presentation.

After your presentation, please ensure you remain on mute while others are presenting to allow them to do so without interruptions. Please use the chat box or raise hand function to interact during any Q&A or discussion time.

There will be a Chair of each session who will be responsible for keeping each session to time so please respect their instructions.
 

4b. Virtual Developmental Paper Sessions

Papers in these sessions are often presented at an early stage of development. However, their papers (up to 2000 words) will have been reviewed and should stand up to reasonably robust discussion.  As an author, please ensure you join the session 15 minutes before your session starts, introduce yourself to the session chair and check for any technical issues. Typically, in a face-to-face Conference, developmental paper presenters are not expected to use AV, however in this instance, authors can use PowerPoint slides if they wish.

The session chair will moderate the Q&A box and chat function and will address any questions/comments after your discussion. 

After your discussion, please ensure you remain on mute while others are presenting to allow them to do so without interruptions. Please use the chat box or raise hand function to interact during any Q&A or discussion time.

There will be a Chair of each session who will be responsible for keeping each session to time so please respect their instructions.

4c. Track Workshops and Symposiums

If you are involved in leading or chairing a Symposium or Workshop, it is likely that you are part of the organising group for this session so there should be no surprises!  However, it is still a good idea to check with the Track Chair and your fellow presenters exactly what format has been agreed with the conference organisers.  Firm time-keeping may be needed; and if audience members intend to leave during the session, ask them to do so with minimal disruption.

Guests who have eduroam accounts should automatically connect to the Wi-Fi or there is a guest Wi-Fi service available onsite. Select ‘Wi-Fi Guest’ from the network list and follow on-screen instructions to set up a free account.

WiFI instructions 

Note on allergies from the KBS Catering:

Any queries relating to food allergies or dietary requirements should be directed to a member of the catering team who will be happy to advise. NTU menus advise if the food item is vegan, vegetarian, made without gluten containing ingredients, dairy free or made using Halal ingredients. All foods are prepared in kitchens where nuts, gluten & other allergens are present, whilst every effort is made to avoid cross-contamination we cannot guarantee this.

All food is prepared in kitchens where nuts, gluten & other allergens could be present.

During the Conference, Delegates are invited to participate in various social activities. Please note that you need to pre-book your place for these activities in advance. Further information will be available in due course. 

Please remember that spaces for all activities listed below are limited and are offered on a first-come-first-served basis.

At the Conference, we will be offering colour communication stickers to help participants tell everyone about their communication preferences. Prior to approaching anyone, please take note of their badge.

Stickers will be available at the registration desk.

TBC

The University of Kent offers free parking on campus in car parks. Please request a parking permit when registering for the conference or the booking onsite accommodation, a permit will be emailed to you, please ensure it is printed and displayed in the windscreen and your vehicle must be parked within a marked bay.

The University of Kent Regulations for the Management of Traffic and Travel applies to all persons and Parking Enforcement is in operation at all times.

Please contact us if a permit is required and you have not already requested one.

Mobility access

Special access arrangements are available at the University of Kent for delegates with special needs, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive and motor impairments. There are accessible toilet facilities and lifts. Induction loops can be arranged prior to arrival, by emailing us at [email protected].

TBC 

Any items found in the BAM conference rooms will be held at the registration desk until the end of the conference. Any items found anywhere else on campus will be handed to Campus Security +44 (0) 1227 823300 [email protected] or the Conference team +44 (0) 1227 828000 [email protected]  After the event, items will be held at the Conference Office for a maximum of two weeks.

Cashless Campus

Our receptions, cafes and facilities on campus are cashless, we accept payments by debit and credit card only. Cash can be used in the two campus Co-ops and if cash is needed off site, ATMs are available on the Jarman Plaza (Co-Op shop).

Kent Union central campus Co-op opening times can be found here

Kent Union Park Wood Co-op opening times can be found here

*Please note that The University of Kent is a cashless campus. 

CURRENCY & EXCHANGE

The official currency in the UK is the pound sterling (£, GBP). Each pound is divided into 100 pence (100p = £1).

The most common banknotes are £5, £10, £20, and £50. 

The coins in circulation are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p and £1 and £2. 

Currency Converter 

You can change money at the following places:

• any bank office
• exchange offices in the airport and within the city
• major hotels
• withdrawal from ATMs

Credit & Debit Cards: The safest and easiest form of money is credit cards. Major credit cards (MasterCard and Visa) are accepted in most restaurants / cafes / facilities. American Express is not accepted at the University of Kent.

Cash Withdrawal: It is possible to withdraw pounds directly from any ATM in Kent. This is also the cheapest option, since it has a lower exchange rate. However, it is important to keep in mind that your own bank may charge you a fee each time you use a foreign ATM.

It is recommended to have a small amount of cash on hand upon arrival in United Kingdom for immediate expenses, i.e. taxies, city transportation etc.

In the United Kingdom the standard voltage is 230 V and the standard frequency is 50 Hz. The power plugs and sockets are of type G.

Unless you are from a country using G type plugs, please do not forget to bring your adapter to Canterbury. 

 For tourist information, please go to Visit Canterbury website.

As part of our sustainability agenda, we are committed to reduce the use of plastic and encourage delegates to bring in their own reusable water bottles and refill on Campus.

There is a permanent water point in Newton Building (please refer to the Newton Floor map, floor plans section). Additional water coolers will be located across all floors for the duration of the event.